


Friends Lock

by Chash



Series: Followers [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hollywood, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-12 05:25:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11155149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: It's one thing to be dating a celebrity. It's another thing to tell you friends you're dating a celebrity. Bellamy's really not sure what the protocol for that one is.





	Friends Lock

As far as Bellamy's concerned, the most awkward part of any new relationship is telling people about it. Given the elevated levels of weird that feel like they should surround dating Clarke, he thought this might not be true anymore, but-- _dating_ Clarke is surprisingly normal, once he (mostly) wraps his head around it. She has a job with long hours, but so does he, and some strange meetings, but she lets him know when she's free, and he goes over to her condo and hangs out on her couch, watching Netflix and making out and being generally kind of stupidly happy.

If he wasn't, in the back of his mind, always kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop with the whole celebrity thing, he'd be incredibly happy. Even with that, he's still pretty incredibly happy. But--he hasn't _told anyone_. He hasn't even told his sister, and it's been after three weeks, he's starting to feel like kind of an asshole about it.

"You don't date much," he tells Clarke.

She's lying with her head in his lap, checking tumblr on her phone while he plays video games. The Playstation is his, but he brought it over to her place on the grounds that her TV is way larger than his, and he spends way more time here than at his own apartment, these days. Clarke is _rich_ , and she likes having him around. Plus, if his roommate figures out he's dating Clarke Griffin, he will definitely try to sell pictures to the paparazzi, and Bellamy will have to murder him.

"I date you all the time," she shoots back, and he smiles and leans down to kiss her forehead.

"I meant other than me. I don't remember seeing a lot about your relationships online or anything."

"I tend to keep it pretty quiet," she says. "I don't date a ton, and when I do--I don't know. A lot of _friends_ I've brought to events were dates, but not all of them. There's always enough speculation that real stuff can kind of skate by." She pauses. "Well, you probably can't."

"No?"

She straightens so she can sit next to him. "You're not in the industry. If I bring another actor to something, there's plausible deniability, like, yeah, we're friends, we were both coming, just figured we'd come together. But--if I bring you, it's pretty obvious you're my boyfriend."

He smiles. "You don't have to bring me to stuff like that."

As expected, she rolls her eyes and leans in to kiss him. "I want to bring you. Weirdly, I enjoy your company. But if you don't want to come--" she adds, confidence faltering, and it's his turn to kiss her.

"I bet there's free booze, of course I want to come. That's not it." She cocks her head, and he gives her half a smile. "I haven't told anyone about us yet. Not even my sister. I have no idea what to say."

"Oh, yeah." She makes a face. "I don't know either, sorry."

He laughs. "Yeah, I thought not."

He's met her social media coordinator, who seems cool, but no one else from her life yet. Her mother is aware he exists and says they're going to get dinner at some unknown point in the future, but Clarke thinks Abby is hoping they'll break up before that point comes. He doesn't know if she's mentioned him to anyone else, but it doesn't bother him. He knows she likes him.

"Usually I don't make a big deal about it," he goes on. "I'll start dropping references to my new significant other when I'm talking to her and she asks me about it. But--"

"But I'm Clarke Griffin." She leans back into his side, drumming her fingers on his stomach. "She's not wondering where you are?"

"I'm still hanging out with her about once a week, the same as ever. I'm kind of talking around it. I feel bad, but--fuck, what do I _say_?"

"I accidentally seduced a famous actress on tumblr."

"I still don't believe that, there's no way she will."

"Ask her over for dinner. She can come meet me. Invite Miller too. Just like ripping off a band-aid. We can order takeout and they can quiz me about my intentions."

"Takeout?"

Clarke shakes her head, smiling. "That's the part of this plan you have a problem with?"

"If they're coming over for dinner I can at least cook."

"You know takeout food isn't actually a punishment, right? We'd get good takeout. I'll spring for it."

"I can cook. I was going to cook tonight anyway. I was going to get dressed and go to the store any minute."

"Uh huh."

He makes a show of trying to move, but Clarke stops him with a hand on his chest. And then she climbs into his lap, which is a huge improvement.

"Seriously, I was going to make you dinner."

She leans down for a long kiss. "You can go in a minute," she murmurs, and he slides his hands up under the back of her shirt.

"Yeah," he agrees. "In a minute."

*

He sends a group text to Octavia and Miller while he's at the grocery store. Shopping is the kind of thing he does alone, because going anywhere public with Clarke Griffin is inescapably high profile, and while he'll do it at some point, he's not going to do it today.

He's certainly not going to do it before his sister and best friend know about his relationship, which is kind of the whole point.

**Me** : You guys want to come for dinner with my new girlfriend tonight?  
I'm making fried chicken and I'm not telling you shit about her unless you show up

**Miller** : Sides?

**Me** : Come on, this isn't my first rodeo  
Mashed potatoes, biscuits, green beans  
I'm even making dessert

**Miller** : So you really like the new girlfriend  
Or you really think we're going to hate her

**Me** : It can be two things

**Miller** : Sure it can  
Can I bring Monty?

**Me** : Yeah  
O, when you see this, you can bring Lincoln too  
Might as well get everyone at once

**Miller** : So you REALLY like her

**Me** : She's my girlfriend  
I'm supposed to like her  
I'll text you the address

He's in the meat section when his phone starts to buzz, and he's not even a little surprised to see it's Octavia. Miller takes things like _I have a new girlfriend_ in stride; his sister, not so much.

"You're having a _dinner party_?" she demands.

"Jesus, at least say hi first," he says. "I raised you better than that, O."

She huffs. "Hi. Since when do you have a girlfriend?"

"About three weeks?"

"And you didn't tell me?"

"Obviously I did. That's why you know about it." He sighs. "Look, I wanted to tell you, but--it's new, okay? I wanted to make sure it was something before I told you. It sucks to tell people you've got someone new and then it's over a week later."

"I guess. But it's serious?"

"Yeah."

"That's awesome. Where did you meet her?"

He mulls it over for a second, but he can't resist. "Tumblr."

" _Bell_."

"What? I did."

"That's not a dating site."

"Anything can be a dating site if you believe in yourself." 

She huffs. "How did you--"

"You know, you'll get answers to all these questions if you come for dinner tonight."

"And I should bring Lincoln."

"You can bring him, yeah. I want him to meet her eventually."

Another long pause, and then she says, "You haven't been serious about anyone for a while."

"No, I haven't. And, uh--it's kind of complicated. But you should come. I really want you to meet her. She's amazing. I'm crazy about her."

"God, you're disgusting. Should I bring beer? Wine? Should I wear something fancy?"

"Jesus, no. Dress normally and bring whatever you want to drink."

"I saw the address you sent Miller. That's a nice neighborhood."

"Yeah, she has a doorman and everything. But she's dating me, so her standards can't be that high, right?"

"You know you're being incredibly weird about this whole thing, right?"

"Trust me, I know. See you in a few hours?" 

"Yeah, looking forward to it. I'll bring Lincoln."

He gets the last of the groceries and pays with cash from Clarke. The first time they got dinner, he tried to insist on paying for half, but Clarke--very reasonably--pointed out that he's a grad student who works at a convenience store and she was rich even _before_ she got personally involved in show business, so there's no reason for him to pay for food he's bringing back to her place.

It does bother him, a little, in a limited sense, but the overwhelming _logic_ of it is too much to ignore. She's rich enough she's not keeping score, and he's the one turning the food from raw material into a meal. 

As with most things about a new relationship, it's going to take some getting used to. But the reasoning is sound. And he's getting some really top-quality ingredients.

Clarke's on the phone when he gets back, but her eyebrows shoot up at the number of bags he's carrying. He raises one shoulder, and she gives him a half smile, shakes her head, and mouths _Marcus_ , so apparently she's got agent business to deal with. He jerks his head to the kitchen and goes to unpack.

Her kitchen is one of those things that makes him kind of want to cry about the injustice of the poverty gap in the United States, because it's _gorgeous_ and perfect, and Clarke's abilities as a chef begin and end with making toast. Whoever furnished the apartment put the kitchen together, and it's so much nicer than the one in Bellamy's apartment that he's almost guilty about using it. He feels like he's the host of his own cooking show in here.

Which Clarke absolutely contributes to, because she likes to watch him and acts like he is performing actual magic every time he makes even the simplest dish. It's simultaneously flattering and a little ridiculous; no one should be impressed by _spaghetti_ , but she is. So if nothing else, he's going to teach her the basics. She will come out of this relationship able to prepare a meal if it kills him.

"I assume all this means that they're coming," she remarks, once her call is done. He does have a pretty epic amount of food spread out and ready for preparation, even he'll admit.

"And bringing their significant others, yeah."

Clarke frowns. "Don't tell me. Lincoln and--Marty?"

"Monty."

"Monty," she repeats, nodding. "So, six of us? What did you tell them?"

"Your address and when to come. Octavia called to yell at me, so I told her it's serious and I met you on tumblr."

She laughs. "Bellamy."

"What? I did."

"So, you're not going to tell them?"

"I thought we were just going to wait for dinner, yeah." He sighs. "I'll go get them downstairs and tell them on the way up. I just--it's awkward no matter what, right?"

"Probably." She presses a kiss to his shoulder. "Sorry."

"As problems go, _how do I tell my friends and family I'm dating a celebrity_ is a pretty good one to have." He nudges her. "I bet you can wash and prep the green beans."

She sighs, like this is a great burden, but there's a smile playing around her lips. "Yeah, I bet I can."

*

Miller and Monty arrive first, for which Bellamy is grateful, because then if Octavia murders him, at least they'll already be in the apartment and taken care of. It would suck if he was so involved in his sister yelling at him that he failed to notice them showing up.

"What the fuck," says Miller, by way of greeting, and then he actually winces, looking _guilty_ , presumably for swearing in a place this nice. 

Monty is looking around with something like awe, and Bellamy can't blame either of them. The lobby of Clarke's building feels like a hotel, and it is still bizarre knowing someone who lives in a place like this. There's _security_. And a _chandelier_.

"So, my girlfriend's Clarke Griffin," he says, with a nod to Alex at the desk as they head to the elevator. 

"Dude," says Miller.

"From _Goredd_?" asks Monty.

"Yeah."

"No way," says Miller.

"We're going upstairs to meet her," he says. "If I'm lying it's going to be really obvious in about two minutes."

"Clarke Griffin," says Miller. " _How_ are you dating Clarke Griffin?"

"She likes my tumblr. Seriously," he adds. "I'll tell you the whole _how we met_ story when O and Lincoln are here, but--yeah. We've been together for three weeks, she's awesome, she likes me. It's, uh--not that surreal unless I'm talking about it."

"Man, I can't believe _you're_ my LA friend who actually hooked up with a celebrity," Miller grumbles, and Bellamy shrugs one shoulder and opens up Clarke's door.

"Holy shit," says Monty, when Clarke waves. "Honestly, I was _still_ expecting someone else."

"I tried to tell you." Clarke's clearly a little anxious--at least clearly to _him_ \--so he goes over to put his arm around her, leaning down for a quick kiss. "Miller's the one with the beard, and Monty's his boyfriend. This is Clarke."

"Yeah, I recognize Miller from your instagram," says Clarke.

"Wow, it's like _I'm_ the celebrity," Miller says, but he offers his hand. "Jesus, how'd you end up slumming with this asshole?"

"Who says I'm not an asshole?" Clarke shoots back, and Miller snorts.

"Yeah, I guess you must be. That would explain a lot." His eyes flick to Bellamy. "And your sister doesn't know yet."

"It's only been three weeks! And there's not really a good way to casually tell people you're dating a celebrity. I just wanted to get it out before I ended up on some weird gossip website."

" _Clarke Griffin making out with unidentified convenience store employee_ ," Clarke agrees. "That's going to be a big scoop if anyone gets it."

"Gets it how?" asks Monty. He still looks a little starstruck, much more than Miller.

"Snaps a photograph before I post one myself, basically. My mom and my agent are basically trying to figure out how to make the announcement, but if they take too long I'll just let my social media manager put something up on instagram."

"Wow," says Monty. "So, your life is really weird, right?"

Clarke laughs. "So fucking weird, yeah. Thanks for coming over."

"Does your giant TV have video games?" he asks, after another moment of consideration.

"Bellamy brought his Playstation over, so yeah. Are there multiplayer games?" she adds, to him, and Bellamy squeezes her shoulders.

"I think we can figure something out, yeah."

Octavia texts that she and Lincoln are in the _fucking fancy lobby_ a few minutes after he gets Clarke and Monty set up with a game, and he presses a quick kiss to her shoulder.

"Gotta go get my sister."

"She doesn't know?" Miller asks.

"Nope."

"Good luck with that."

"I'm going to be her celebrity connection, right? That's something."

"Keep telling yourself."

Clarke gives his hand a quick squeeze, but most of her attention is on the screen. It's cute, and even with his anxiety about telling Octavia, he's pretty excited. He's really gone for this girl, and thinking about her hanging out with his friends, getting to know with his sister, being a part of his _life_ \--that's awesome. 

Miller jumps off the couch too. "You know, I actually want to see this."

"Are you going to protect me?" Bellamy asks, wary.

"I'm going to film it and put it on YouTube."

"Sounds right."

Once the door is closed and they're alone, Miller gives him a calculating look, which was about what he expected. Everyone, he's pretty sure, _thinks_ it would be great to date a celebrity. It's a pretty common fantasy. But it's one of those fantasies like winning the lottery, where what you think about tends to be the big reward, and not all the messy details like taxes and infamy.

"Seriously?" he asks, finally.

"I'm not going to not date an amazing woman just because she's famous," he says. "It's weird, yeah. And it's probably going to suck in a lot of ways. But--I met her online, like I said. I was trying to figure out how to ask if she wanted to meet up when she told me who she was."

"I'm really looking forward to that story," Miller says. "It better be fucking weird."

Bellamy snorts. "I still can't believe it."

Octavia spots Miller first, and her slightly peeved expression turns shrewd. "If Miller's coming down with you, this must be good."

"Oh, yeah," says Miller. "If I didn't know how broke he is I'd say he was wasting a ton of money just to fuck with us."

"I wonder what it would be like to have loving, supportive friends," Bellamy muses. He gives his sister a hug and shakes Lincoln's hand. "Hey, guys. Come on, Monty and Clarke are upstairs."

"Your girlfriend's name is Clarke?" asks Octavia.

"Yup."

He's walking, so she follows him, but his sister's no idiot. "Bell."

"What?"

"You aren't actually trying to make me think you're dating Clarke Griffin, are you? Just because she came into your store a few weeks ago--"

"She did?" asks Miller.

"She was looking for me," says Bellamy, hitting the button for the elevator. "Yeah, O, I'm dating Clarke Griffin."

"That's not sarcasm," Miller adds. "She's upstairs with Monty, I swear to God."

Octavia's jaw actually drops. "You are not."

"I am."

"You said you met her on tumblr!"

"I did."

" _How_?" 

"He's waiting to tell us until we're all together," Miller says. "Overdramatic asshole."

"Fuck you. I'm already repeating myself enough. Besides, this way you get Clarke's side too. Hers is funnier."

"Clarke Griffin," says Octavia.

"It's going to be weird if you call her by her full name, O." 

The elevator opens onto Clarke's floor before she can respond, and Lincoln holds the door open for everyone before following them out. He's just been listening, which doesn't surprise Bellamy; in the year that he and Octavia have been dating, Lincoln has learned the best way to deal with Blake family arguments is to just stay quiet and let them sort it out among themselves.

"I can't believe you kept your mouth shut about this for _three weeks_ ," she grumbles, and he grins.

"Yeah, I can't either."

As soon as the door is open, Octavia stops short, staring in open disbelief at the couch. Clarke has paused the game and stood, all her earlier anxiety returning, and Bellamy's on the verge of nudging his sister when Lincoln steps around them to offer his hand.

"I'm Lincoln," he says. "Thank you for having us over."

"Clarke," she says, relaxing a little. "Bellamy did all the work. I just washed the beans and told him everything smelled good."

"Still. We appreciate being invited. Don't we, Octavia?"

"Oh my god, I had all your CDs in middle school," says Octavia, and Bellamy laughs.

"I told you my sister was a fan, right?"

She goes white. " _Bell_! You told her?"

"I told her _I_ was a fan. I didn't know it was her yet."

There's a smug smirk playing on Clarke's lips. "He gave me a run down of how much he impressed me the first time I came into the store. It was cute."

"I _did_ impress you," he grumbles. 

"You did," she agrees, and he goes over to kiss her on the cheek.

His sister is still gaping. If he's honest, it's pretty gratifying. Octavia loves to call him a giant dork, in an affectionate way, and it's not like he's _not_ , but he's a giant dork who legitimately and entirely on his own merits charmed her favorite teen idol.

"Seriously, _how_?" Octavia finally asks, and Bellamy glances at Clarke.

"We need beer for this, right?"

"You know me, I think we need beer for everything."

"Perfect," says Monty. "You're going to fit right in."

*

They get beer and settle in the living room. Octavia's still watching Clarke like she's expecting her to rip off a mask and reveal someone else's face under her own, but Clarke has relaxed, tucking herself into Bellamy's side with apparent ease.

"I think you should start," he says. "They already know about my tumblr."

"Which one?" asks Miller.

"Hollywood Histories."

"That's how you guys met?" Octavia asked. "You like his dorky tumblr?"

Clarke tangles her fingers in his. "I love his dorky tumblr. I was kind of--I was feeling annoyed that I didn't have any control over my social media presence, so I decided to get a secret tumblr."

"Which is probably the least exciting celebrity rebellion of all time," Bellamy teases.

"Substance abuse is so cliched. I wanted to do something _different_ ," she tells him, and he grins. Miller and Monty exchange a look, and he figures it must be really weird for them. He's in the honeymoon stage of a relationship with _Clarke Griffin_. By now, he's used to it, but for them it's got to be downright surreal. "Anyway," Clarke says, turning her focus back to the rest of the group. "Yeah. I found Bellamy's blog and started following it, and I thought he seemed cool and started messaging him."

"You started it?" Octavia asks, sounding vaguely horrified. 

"At some point here you're going to have to accept that my girlfriend likes me, O," Bellamy says. "She did like all the work."

"Hey, you followed me from your personal account," says Clarke. "That was a relationship milestone."

"True. She'd message me about what she was watching, so we started talking. I followed her on my main account, she lied about her name--"

"It's my middle name, it counts," says Clarke.

"And then she started stalking me at work."

"I thought I was telling this story."

"Sure, go ahead. Tell them all about how you weren't stalking me."

"I knew he worked in a convenience store and, you know. Basic demographics. Male, 28, biracial. So I was kind of paying attention. He'd talk about seeing celebrities sometimes so it didn't seem totally impossible. And if I saw a guy who seemed plausible, I'd ask him later on tumblr if he had any celebrity encounters. And then one day he did."

"That's when you told me you met her?" Octavia asks.

"Yeah. And, like I told you, I was very cool. She wasn't freaked out at all."

"He was surprisingly professional, yeah," says Clarke.

"So, you told him who you were?" Monty asks.

Clarke worries her lip. "Not right away. It was so weird! I didn't know how. I wanted to tell him, but I wasn't sure he'd believe me. So, yeah," she admits. "I kind of stalked him at work for a couple weeks until I got my nerve up to tell him who I was."

"And that was three weeks ago," says Octavia.

"Yeah." Clarke fidgets with his fingers, smiling a little. "But--we were talking basically every day before that, so it doesn't really feel like just three weeks."

Bellamy kisses her hair. "Yeah. We started off pretty serious."

"Once you stopped waiting for some prank show host to jump out and tell you it was all a bit," she teases.

" _My internet girlfriend is my celebrity crush_ does not sound fucking real," he says, and she laughs.

"Definitely not."

"I still can't believe Bell's blog got him _any_ action, let alone--" Octavia gestures to Clarke.

Clarke smirks. "Hey, nerds are in."

Bellamy can't keep a smug smile off his own face. He doesn't really _care_ about the status associated with dating Clarke but, at the same time, it's kind of awesome. "Obviously," he agrees.

"Obviously," says Miller. "You guys are kind of fucking ridiculous, by the way."

"We noticed," says Clarke, bright. "Video games?"

*

They play some more video games and have dinner, and by the end of the night it's obvious that everyone else hasn't _forgotten_ that Clarke is, well, Clarke, but they're already getting used to her. And she settles too, starts teasing and joking around with everyone else, and it's as awesome as it always is, seeing people he cares about starting to get along.

There are hugs all around when his friends take off, and O and Miller telling him they're happy for him.

"She seems to really like you," his sister adds.

"She seems too, yeah," he agrees. "Night, O."

Clarke flops against his side on the sofa when they're finally alone.

"They liked me, right?"

He strokes her back. "They liked you, yeah. I wasn't worried they wouldn't. Just--"

"I'm Clarke Griffin."

"You're Clarke Griffin. It takes some getting used to."

She laughs. "Yeah. I'm still getting used to it." Deliberately, she fishes her phone out of her pocket and holds it up. Bellamy smiles reflexively, and she snaps a picture.

"What's that for?"

"Depends on how it came out," she says, inspecting it. "What do you think?"

He shrugs. "It's fine. Why?"

"I'm going to send it to Raven to post on instagram. Do you mind?"

"Already?"

"I want to go shopping with you," she says, soft. "I know it's not a big deal, but--"

He kisses her hair. "Go for it." And then, "You can't even post to your own instagram?"

"Raven says I don't understand hashtags." She opens up a text and sends Raven the picture and a quick message: _Can you post this to instagram with caption "Night in with the bf"?_

Raven replies instantly--Bellamy is half convinced she has some kind of cybernetic implant connecting her to her phone-- _Does your mom know?_

_She knows it's coming_ , Clarke sends back, and apparently that's enough for Raven, because the next thing she sends is a link to the instagram post, exactly as Clarke wanted it. Even knowing it's coming, it's a little weird to see it there on the screen, irreversible. Abby could tell Raven to delete it whens she finds out, but it wouldn't matter now. He knows how the internet works. There are probably already reposts of it on twitter and tumblr, conspiracy theories about who he is and where he came from.

"We look pretty cute," Clarke says, and he tugs her closer.

"Yeah," he agrees. "We're looking good."


End file.
